Merome - Part 2 of 4
by asfmerome4life
Summary: In this part, Jerome tries his best to ignore the rapidly forming relationship between Mitch and Ashley- when Jerome feels like there is nothing else to do, everything is not as it seems. The complete 2nd part of the short story MEROME. PART 2 of 4. (I apologise for any spelling mistakes or errors!).


**Part 2 - Phase.**

The plane became dimmer as the sun slowly went down. It was another few hours yet before we landed, and I was still trying my best to get as much sleep as possible.  
"Having trouble falling asleep?" I heard Ashley whisper.  
"Yeah", Mitch replied, "do you mind if I put the arm rest up, and... rest on your shoulder? It might help me sleep easier". I heard her give a small chuckle and proceed to lift up the arm rest that separated them, "You know you look really cute when you sleep."  
"Pfft, I do not", he retorted back, "no photos".  
She laughed quietly, "try and stop me". I tried my best to block out their conversation and giggles. It was difficult seeming that everyone else on board were nearly asleep, meaning that the plane was dead silent. Only a few moments later my phone beside me vibrated, I realised I had left twitter notifications on. A notification popped up that made me want to throw my phone out of the plane window, and maybe even myself along with it. I knew what it was before I even opened the notification. It was a picture which Ashley had uploaded of Mitch fast asleep on her shoulder, at that instance I shut off my phone and slumped over in my seat.  
My body started to heat up and my head started to pound.  
I'm not sure where these feelings had come from, or why they are arising now- I've known Mitch since year 4, I have never felt this sort of way towards him before or anyone for that matter. However, I'm pretty sure it's just a phase and I'll grow out of it eventually….right?  
After my brain rattled through all different types of scenarios and fantasies, I found what I was truly looking for, sleep.****

~~~~~~

It has been a few weeks since I had arrived back home to Jersey, I wasn't going to lie I had felt a little bit home-sick while I was away in LA. As much as I love spending a few days with my boys, sometimes it's nice to have a break to 'recharge'. However, it was only a 3 days until I head back to LA again for the launch of Team Crafted. All members of Team Crafted will be living under the one roof and we all know what that means. Chaos and drama ahead - but that's nothing we boys can't handle. Nevertheless I'm sure it won't take us very long to get settle into our new house and get into our everyday routine.  
Although I should consider hiring a part time maid, 7 boys living together and I don't think any of them would want to be stuck playing the role as house maid. If I were to somehow to be selected to play that role, I know for certain that would be quarter-past, not-happening.  
Of course each and every one of us will partake in a specific chore to do around the house, but I can't repudiate that things will end up being muddled from time to time.

I was just finishing eating my bowl of cereal, my third bowl I might add, when I received a text message from Mitch asking if I was available to do some recordings of our new series, Dinosaurs.  
I text him back saying that I was free to play.  
I quickly hurried to set up all my equipment needed for the recordings, and in no time at all, we got most of the recordings done and dusted. Except for one because my dog, Coco, thought it would be a smart idea to run underneath the table and bump all the power cords—causing my computer to turn off abruptly.  
That was the only minor hiccup in the recording process, but it wasn't long until we had back on track again.  
"I would like to thank you all for watching, take care and goodnight" Mitch concluded. I shut off my recording and we both took a sigh of relief that we had finished recording for the night. I looked at the digital clock which sat on my desk and noticed that time was gradually making its way into the early hours of the morning. I couldn't wait to get some sleep, I can hardly think straight.  
"So… got any plans for the weekend?" I asked, just as a general question to see if I was able to spark up a decent conversation.  
"I got a date with 'you know who'", he replied. I regret asking the question as quick as he answered it.  
He didn't speak of Ashley much, unless her name was brought up in a conversation—then he would never shut up about her. He would talk about the things that she would do that apparently to him were "adorable", or chat about a sweet, flirty text message that she sent to him.  
I always got that sick, tingling feeling in my stomach whenever he speaks of her that way, but I just have to listen to it and support him if he makes the decision to form a relationship with Ashley. That's what friends are supposed to do, support each other- regardless of the side effects. By side effects I mean myself.  
"I'd love to stay and talk more, but I'm really sleep deprived. I need all the sleep that I am able to get", he exhaled. He was right, I required more sleep as well. But I would chose talking to him over sleep any day. After about two minutes on discussing where to meet up at the airport on Sunday, we said goodbye and I crawled into bed. It only took a matter of minutes until I fell asleep, and for the first night in a long while, I got a reasonable amount of sleep.

Sunday came around rather quickly. I was standing with Adam at the boarding entrance waiting for Mitch to walk off the plane. His face eventually revealed itself in the large amount of people that surrounded him. We exchanged our hellos and decided to go get something to eat. Our plane had been delayed by 2 hours; due to the rainy, dismal weather. Therefore we wanted to kill as much time as possible.  
"I don't know what to get", I said, staring at the menu board of a small takeaway shop inside of the airport.  
"What are you in the mood to eat?" Adam asked. I felt the sudden temptation to reply with a smart-ass answer like, 'food', but I thought I would go the more matured way.  
"I'm either going to get a burger, or a salad wrap", I replied.  
"Oh!" Adam said excitedly, "they sell mini packets of budder here". He pointed to the small basket that contained several miniature containers of butter.  
"Make sure you slurp up all that goodness", Mitch laughed, in which Adam returned.  
The cashier behind the counter asked Adam to come forward to order his meal.

"Decisions, Decisions", I mutter softly to myself. I knew that Mitch had overheard and he gave off a small chuckle. "What? What's so funny?" I laughed.  
"You talk to yourself too much", he said, still snickering. I couldn't help but realise how perfect his laugh sounded, even if it were a small giggle of some sort. I hadn't seen him for a few weeks, the feelings that I had towards him had died down a little over that period of time, but I could slowly feel them starting to grow again.  
"Shush, I can talk to myself if I want to", I grinned.  
"I'm not complaining, I'm just saying you talk to yourself quite a lot", he responded, smiling.  
"Maybe I like talking to myself, it's fun, you should try it sometime"  
"You're a special kind of special, aren't you?"  
" Yes, have you got a problem with that?"  
"Not at all actually, it's kind of cute", he said. There were no signs portrayed that he meant it in a friend way. I stared at him, gob-smacked. What seemed like a general talk, just unexpectedly turned into a conversation with a flirtatious vibe. His facial expression suddenly froze as he took more notice of what he had just said. Just as he was opening his mouth to speak, Adam interrupted him, "Damn, this looks so good". He shoved almost a quarter of a chicken wrap in his mouth, "I recommend you order this, you will not regret it". Mitch and I exchanged awkward looks for a few seconds, and it didn't go unnoticed. "What? What happened?" Adam alarmed.  
"Nothing, nothing at all", Mitch said hurriedly, "we better get moving, don't want to miss this flight".


End file.
